Computers are often arranged in various network configurations so as to facilitate communications and resource sharing between the computers. For instance, computers are typically arranged in a local area network (LAN), and may be organized in a group or cluster. A corporation may arrange its network according to functional units of the corporation—such as a cluster for management, a cluster for engineering, a cluster for marketing, etc., or the networked computers may be arranged using a variety of other schemes.
Typically, one or more computers in a network has the capability to perform administrative functions to maintain the network and the computers thereof. Administration functions may include monitoring functions, configuration functions, or other functions needed for the administration of the network. Such function may require collection of data—using a client application program—about one or more computers in the network.
Referring to FIG. 1, an example of a computer network 10 is illustrated, wherein a plurality of computers are interconnected by a network connection 12. The network includes multiple clusters 14 of computers, wherein each cluster contains one or more computers therein. As shown in FIG. 1, one of the computers 16 performs administrative functions for the network, which as mentioned above, may include monitoring, configuring, or administering the network. It is understood that the network of FIG. 1 can be arranged in a variety of different ways, and FIG. 1 merely shows one example of a network configuration.
In the administration of the network of FIG. 1, the computer 16 responsible for the network administration may, from time to time, require data from one or more of the computers within the network 10, wherein the data required should satisfy a specified criteria. Collecting data from many computers can be very time consuming, particularly where the network 10 is a complex network with a large number of computers. Where a system administrator's computer 16 queries the computers in the network 10 for data, a prompt response to the query is desirable as recognized by the present inventors.
With some administrative interfaces, queries which are un-optimized would likely operate on all of the computers in the network, which thereby generates requests to and responses from all of the computers in the network and from which all the returned data is examined to determine if any of the data satisfies the query. Such a process can be very time consuming, particularly in a large computer network.
As recognized by the present inventors, what is needed is a method for handling queries relating to the administration or monitoring of network computers in a manner which efficiently reduces the scope of the query and accesses computers in the network which are likely to have the data of interest.
It is against this background that various embodiments of the present invention were developed.